Little Caesars

Little Caesars is a quick-service pizza chain known for its low prices, its catchword “Pizzapizza,” indicating two pizzas for the price of one, and “Crazy Bread” coated with garlic salt, butter and Parmesan cheese.

The fast-food restaurant was founded in 1959 in Garden City, Mich., by Mike and Marian Ilitch, who began franchising in 1962 and had grown to 50 locations by 1969, the same year that they opened their first international location, in Canada.

The Ilitches moved the company’s headquarters to Detroit in 1989. Mike Ilitch, who was also a minor league baseball player, died in 2017 but the Ilitch family continues to own and operate Little Caesars as well as its main distributor, Blue Line Distribution (which started as a mushroom farm founded by the Ilitch family to supply the pizza topping), the Detroit Red Wings hockey team, the Detroit Tigers baseball team, Olympia Entertainment, Olympia Development, Little Caesars Pizza Kit Fundraising Program, Champion Foods and MotorCity Casino Hotel.

Key data: Little Caesars

Headquarters: Detroit

Segment: Quick Service

Restaurant Segment: LSR Pizza

Number of U.S. Locations: 4,083

2020 Sales: $3.78 billion

Annual Growth:

Source: Datassential Firefly 500

CEO: David Scrivano

Parent Company: Ilitch Holdings Inc.